Spector's Junction Point signs to Vivendi

Speaking in an interview with Game Developer magazine, Spector has discussed how his story-driven approach is informing Junction Point's first production, still unnannouced, and how that ethos has been previously recieved by publishers.

"You don't want to know how many projects I've been told to 'just go make a shooter'. I had one publisher tell me 'you're not allowed to say 'story' any more'," he explains. "Luckily Vivendi seems to get it."

Austin, Texas-based Junction Point was founded by Spector in March 2005 following the closure of Eidos' Ion Storm a month previously. He has made a name for himself via work on Ultima Underworld, System Shock, Thief, and Deus Ex series of games and as an active, sometimes outspoken, member of the development community.

Spector is hosting a lecture at 'The Future of Storytelling In Next-Generation Game Development' at GDC next week, which his blurb for the talk discribes as "a partly philosophical, partly practical, partly ranty talk about games and stories, past, present, and future".

Deus Ex creator Warren Spector used to be a man always in the headlines, but the past few years have seen his Junction Point studio joining the Disney Interactive family and little else. We caught up with him at GDC08 to talk independence, reputation and the problems with game stories...

What if a game's legacy weren't its set pieces or its graphics, but the issues and choices players make. For people like Warren Spector, such a thing is the Holy Grail - and, he says, there's no reason we can't do it...